Hundreds of our readers are enjoying a healthy glow and a spring in their step this week and it’s not just a sign of the improving weather. Our first eight-week Get Running programme finished last week with participants running for 30 minutes non-stop. Congratulations to everyone who has reached that major milestone.

The emails, Tweets and Facebook messages we have received in the past week suggest many of those who finished the course never believed they could get this far.

"I completed the course on Saturday last and, honestly, if anyone had told me at Christmas I'd be running for 30 minutes non-stop in March I'd have laughed," was the comment from Lynn Fitzpatrick during our live Q&A session on irishtimes.com yesterday, neatly summing up how so many readers feel.

We know that life often gets in the way of plans and so not everyone has managed to complete the programme. But no matter how much of the course you’ve completed, we’d love to see as many people as possible getting down to their local parkrun next Saturday, March 15th, for a free 5km race to mark your achievement.

We'll have representatives of The Irish Times at most of the parkruns around the country and they'll have some special Get Running T-shirts to give away to mark the occasion. If you see them on the day, be sure to tell them you've completed the course and you might be able to claim your free T-shirt.

Even if there isn’t a parkrun near you, there are lots of races around the country taking place for St Patrick’s weekend, so why not do one of those?

We'd also love people to share their photos and a short quote about their first race, whether it's parkrun or somewhere else, so we can share them in print, online and in social media. Send them to us at fitness@irishtimes.com or through our Facebook page (facebook.com/irishtimes
running).

Given the huge response to our first Get Running course, we’re delighted to announce we will be launching a 10km course next month. That will be just in time for anyone who wants to run the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon or any of the other 10km runs that take place during the summer. More details next week.

In the meantime, the advice from Mary Jennings is to repeat week eight of the current course a couple of times and you'll be in a great position to take part in the next instalment of Get Running.